Three Steps To Avoid Poverty

Income mobility.  Poverty.  How to create best results.

Topics that generate a lot of interest in the discussion of politics, government and the role of government.

I have discussed how marriage can impact the GINI coefficient measuring income disparity in populations and more recently had conversations regarding the impact of marriage on social mobility.  I feel that the more married we are, the more mobile we are:

I suspect that it [ social mobility] has to do with several things, but I feel that our declining marriage rate and the number of immigrants are leading reasons.

I came across an interesting piece of data from the Brookings Institute:

The Immediate Prerequisites to Success Are:

  1. Recieve a good education [graduate high school]
  2. Work full time
  3. Marry [And do it before having kids]

The results are staggering:

If an individual adheres to zero of those three social norms, he has a 76% chance of being poor.  Only a 7% chance of attaining the middle class.

On the other hand, if an individual adheres to all three of those social norms, an almost exact opposite picture is painted.  An individual stands a 74% chance of attaining middle class and only a 2% chance of being poor.

 

2 responses to “Three Steps To Avoid Poverty

  1. Took a look at the Brookings presentation, which also makes the point that there is little economic mobility for the poorest Americans.

    As for the factors Brookings identifies, I wonder how much of this is the tail wagging the dog. At least the first two, and quite possibly the third factor also correlate highly with people being born into some level of wealth in the first place. That is, I’m not sure they measure what you need to do to gain wealth as much as they measure the advantages of being born into some level of wealth.

    • which also makes the point that there is little economic mobility for the poorest Americans.

      I did, I read the whole Power Point. Page 5 hows that 42% of people born into the bottom quintile remain there. Which, of course, means that just about 60% move out of it.

      I admittedly don’t know what the “right” percentages should be, but 60% moving out is hardly little mobility.

      At least the first two, and quite possibly the third factor also correlate highly with people being born into some level of wealth in the first place.

      I would be interested in seeing the data, but I think that I agree.

      People who are successful pass on the “rules of success” to their kids. For example, there is no chance that my kids don’t graduate high school, little chance they don’t graduate college and a high chance that they graduate college with a useful degree.

      I think the useful take aways from the data are that we need to graduate more kids, make them go to work and then get married.

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